WGG's Thoughts on the Local Food Movement

Month: May 2014

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Big conflab the next couple of days in Clinton concerning local food on this Island. May be use it as a means to revitalize Clinton. Cool…Why do they do these things in May when folks that ACTUALLY do what they are yakking about are up to their eyeballs in work?? Bunch of folks getting together to “map the food resources we have and dream about what could be” to quote their ad on Drewslist. Food resources on Whidbey Island…Think the WGG vendor email list has that one pretty well covered. My dream?? I started it 9 years ago, it’s called Whidbey Green Goods…

Rather than run a bunch of employees & sit on a little fiefdom, I decided to form a “web” of the little growers/producers on this Island and the surrounding counties. WGG gives them a distinct marketing outlet over and above their current outlets. It is a Pick-to-Order system so there is very little waste like a farmers market. It is delivered so there is 2.3 times less fuel used to “move the food” than the standard CSA model of come & fetch. With aggregation, folks get a far wider selection, similar to a farmers market, but do not have to contend with the weather or “finding” time to go marketing. From farm-to-doorstep, food is stored for utmost freshness and on the doorstep within a couple days of the pick.

Guess the question I have for the CLEO meet, why not support the local food system that is already in place? I’m about 100% certain if you asked any grower/artisan producer, myself included, what they need, their answer would be MORE SALES. They may not express that thought to the general populace, but that is what I hear down in the trenches. And contrary to popular opinion, Whidbey Telecom and the likes do not take ‘kudos’ as payment-in-full.

If the CLEO meet wants something to ponder, how does local food attract the next tier of the BUYING public?? This is a question being asked nationally, as well…